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Austin band, seen earlier this year on PBS’ Austin City Limits, is also scheduled to play the Austin City Limits and Wakarusa festivals.

Band of Heathens

AUSTIN, Texas — The Band of Heathens, whose current album One Foot in the Ether reached #1 on the Americana airplay charts and has won critical kudos from the indie-rock, alt-country and jam press alike, were nominated this week in the Americana Honors & Awards category of ”Best Duo or Group.” It is the band’s second nomination for the Honors & Awards; the first was last year’s nomination for “Best Emerging Duo or Group.”

In what will prove a pivotal year for the Band of Heathens, the quintet will also perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park in August, and at the Wakarusa festival in Arkansas. Also this past year, the band performed on the nationally televised PBS program Austin City Limits on a bill with Elvis Costello.

The guys in the Band of Heathens are fond of saying they became a unit by accident. But one might argue that a kind of destiny was involved in the merger of singer/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and Colin Brooks with bassist Seth Whitney and drummer John Chipman, all of whom came from various solo careers and groups. Their new album, One Foot in the Ether, offers irrefutable evidence that they were meant to be together — and have evolved into a solid entity worthy of the comparisons they receive to the Black Crowes, the Band and Little Feat.

Maverick magazine called One Foot in the Ether album “a quality album from a quality group,” adding, “If you haven’t caught up with this group, why not?” The Wall Street Journal reviewer pronounced their live show at SXSW 2009 the “best set I came across during my five nights in town.” Blurt noted: “An album that echoes their down-home resolve, One Foot in the Ether finds them putting their best foot forward.”

The Americana Honors & Awards ceremony will be held Thursday, September 9 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Other nominees in the “Best Duo or Group” category include the Avett Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Dave Rawlings Machine.

According to band member Gordy Quist, “We’re really pleased to be nominated for this award by the Americana Music Association and to be named along with such amazing artists. The AMA has supported us from the very start and it’s a real honor to be embraced by the Americana community.”

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